Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), left, president pro tem of the California state Senate talks briefly to the press July 23, 2009, in Sacramento shortly after the senate recessed. The senate and assembly are meeting to attempt to pass a new budget to deal with a $26 billion shortfall. less

Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), left, president pro tem of the California state Senate talks briefly to the press July 23, 2009, in Sacramento shortly after the senate recessed. The senate and assembly are ... more

Photo: Robert Durell, Special To The Chronicle

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State Senators Leland Yee (D- San Francisco), left and Ronald Calderon (D-Montebello) right, listen to the debate on the budget bills in Sacramento, July 23, 2009.

State Senators Leland Yee (D- San Francisco), left and Ronald Calderon (D-Montebello) right, listen to the debate on the budget bills in Sacramento, July 23, 2009.

Photo: Robert Durell, Special To The Chronicle

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California Legislature's long to-do list

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The California Legislature ends a bruising nine-month session this week, and after spending much of that time dealing with the budget crisis, leaders are hoping for major breakthroughs on some intractable issues.

But with a Friday deadline looming, the highly polarized Legislature could end the session without any major progress on long-standing problems, including dysfunctional state prisons and a broken water system.

"This has been a rough year," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "I have presided over a resolution of about $60 billion-plus in budget deficits. ... But I want to end this session on a high note, and we have a small window here to try and get some positive things done."

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In addition to hundreds of individual bills yet to be voted on, lawmakers want to come up with a plan to fix the state's water infrastructure, which is overburdened and susceptible to collapse, while protecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Two-thirds of Californians get their water from the delta, a fragile estuary where rare fish populations are crashing and levees are ready to crumble. Yet water users - from the city of Los Angeles to farmers in the Central Valley - complain that environmental protections make the delta system unreliable.

A committee working to craft a plan to present to the Legislature canceled two meetings, on Saturday and Sunday, but were tentatively scheduled to meet today.

"There's the possibility for a water deal because it's not a zero-sum game," Schnur said, noting that a large bond package could include enough money to satisfy a wide number of interests. "How's that for cynical?"

Prison work

Also on the agenda are changes to the state's prison system designed to deal with both a $1.2 billion budget cut and an order from three federal judges to reduce the prison population because of unconstitutionally poor inmate health care.

The Senate passed a bill that would cut the prison population by 27,000 in part by imposing alternative custody arrangements, which critics contend amounts to early release of hardened criminals. But some Democrats in the Assembly balked at several of the changes and passed a bill that reduces the prison population by 17,000 and was about $220 million short in savings.

The Assembly will take up parts of the plan that were stripped out: a commission to revamp sentencing and parole laws and the alternative custody for some inmates.

"I think it's important to set the bar high and it's important to try as hard as we can. We are trying very hard in the Assembly. We may or may not get there," said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angeles County).

The third major issue is whether to require utilities to significantly increase the amount of alternative energy in their portfolios. According to the state Public Utilities Commission, the proposal to increase the clean-energy mandate from 20 percent to 33 percent would require efforts "on a scale and timeline perhaps unparalleled anywhere in the world."

So far, no utility has reached the current 20 percent mandate, and the PUC projects that meeting the even more aggressive target by 2020 would cause utility bills to rise by 7 percent.

The measure passed the Senate with only one vote to spare.

Low in the polls

Whether lawmakers are able to resolve any of these issues will affect how the public views the Legislature, which is "breaking new ground with low ratings," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the nonpartisan Field Poll. The organization has tracked public opinion in the state since 1947.

"What they need to do is get back to some level of functionality - agreeing on things that pass both houses, that the governor can sign and that are significant to the public at large," DiCamillo said. He said the economy has certainly played a part in the low approval rating, which stood at 14 percent in a May poll. Yet even during past recessions, the number never dipped so low.

Lawmakers did come together late last week, with the Assembly voting 58-0 and more than two-thirds of the Senate agreeing on a measure to place a temporary tax on large health care providers. That bill, which the governor promised to sign, would ensure that 600,000 children do not lose medical and dental coverage. Money for that service was slashed in the budget deal signed by the governor in July.

Steven Maviglio, a political strategist who consults for the Democratic Party, said that resolving major issues in Sacramento requires a lot of heavy lifting and that the public perceives lawmakers as doing nothing when they try and fail.

"But if they hit a few things out of the park - health care, prisons, water, renewable energy standards - that's a pretty hefty agenda to get done, particularly in the wake of a year where the budget consumed 99.9 percent of the Legislature's time and energy," he said.

Once the regular session ends Friday, the Legislature will convene for a special session to tackle changes in education that will bring more federal money to the state.